THESE four gifted musicians use every part of their guitars to create a kaleidoscope of sound textures.

Their eclectic repertoire demands judicious use of a variety of tones and rhythms, ranging from elaborate percussive effects, produced by tapping the body of the guitar, to a delicate filigree of sounds created by deft fingering.

Inspired by their name, taken from the Italian for water-colour, the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet's Michael Baker, Vasilis Bessas, James Jervis and Richard Safhill "paint" beautiful soundscapes.

Opals by the Australian composer Phillip Houghton is a wonderful evocation of that continent's landscape. The slow movement, depicting water, was dripping with harmonics, giving the piece of mystical quality. The water theme was continued by Leo Brouwer's Cuban Landscape With Rain, a minimalist classical piece depicting a thunderstorm from the first to the last raindrop via the eye of the storm.

The performance was powerful, yet delicate.

Lotus Eaters, by Andrew York of the distinguished Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, is inspired by the Ancient Greek myth of island dwellers whose diet of fruit from the lotus tree makes them forget their past troubles. Aquarelle's interpretation of this optimistic piece was bursting with enjoyment.

Percussive effects have become an important part of the modern repertoire for classical guitar and the quartet brought this technique to the fore in works inspired by African drumming tribes.

To play a piece called Mbira, by William Kanengiser, they even adapted their guitars to make them sound like the "thumb pianos" used in African music.

The quartet are expanding their repertoire with their own arrangements. Bessas transcribed, by ear, Seven Years, a song by the singing sensation Norah Jones. It featured a bottle-neck solo by Safhill.

Bessas also arranged for four guitars the haunting music from the film Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence by the Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. The quartet's interpretation was beautifully judged.

All four musicians are graduates of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where they were the first guitar quartet to be awarded the Diploma In Professional Performance, the college's highest performance award.

Their ensemble playing was certainly a joy to behold as they tackled works from around the world, spanning from the Renaissance to the present day.

Watching the concert on Saturday night was the Rev Simon Stanley, of St Chad's, who recalled teaching Safhill rudimentary guitar in an ensemble that played Beatles covers when they both lived at Dunnington, near York. Fret not, Simon.

Updated: 10:05 Tuesday, June 01, 2004